Focusing on disability, benefits, and sharing my experiences of COPD, heart failure/aortic valve calcification & stenosis, ME/CFS (27 years), and, latterly, bilateral lymphoedema and cellulitis (foul conditions that cause me more pain and misery than everything else combined), plus general disability and mobility issues and advice, in the hope they will help others, along with books, cooking, and anything else that piques my interest… Please note: This theme was selected for its overall clarity, but many items are greyed out until you hover the cursor over them including, annoyingly, the photo below.

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Affordable medical insurance? Yeah, right…

“Private medical insurance,” says the ad, “It’s not as expensive as you think.”

Really? And that’s not the most egregious, lying, bollocks I think it is?

As a lifelong member of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Community, I currently have nine separate, serious, conditions,*** about half of which are potentially fatal.

And there are very many more within the CS&DC with conditions as, or more, complex than mine – I’m not claiming I’m in any way unique.

I am, though, claiming that anyone saying to me, and those others, that medical insurance is even affordable (for those of us dependent on benefits, at least), is lying. And, of course, such insurance generally excludes pre-existing conditions (or they attract a massive premium surcharge), so we’re screwed anyway.

And that’s why, even though many of us who are CS&D are no longer able to contribute via National Insurance and Income Tax,**** absolutely depend, for our very survival in many cases, upon an NHS that is free at the point of need.

**** Though we do so via VAT on almost everything we buy, plus assorted duties if we drink, drive, or smoke. What benefit bigots conveniently choose to ignore is that a large proportion of our benefits goes back to the exchequer in taxes. What’s left contributes to keeping the economy ticking over. Unlike the rich, we don’t have enough money to take it out of circulation and hoard it.

Don’t believe Cameron’s lies that we can’t afford a “free” NHS – it’s not free, it never has been free, nor was it ever intended to be, except, and this is vital to our continued existence, at the point of need; we all pay for it via taxation.

***

*** The List:-

And yes, I know I’ve posted this list before, but not everyone reads every post.

***

ME since 1985 (previous blog post said 1986 – typo).

FMS since my teens.

Osteoarthritis in left hip since age 32. Massively ramped up by being struck by lightning in 1983, now widespread.

Spinal arthritis (cervical spine) since my 20s.

COPD** Asthma and bronchiectasis since age 2, when almost simultaneous measles and whooping cough trashed my lungs. Emphysema, the indicator for the diagnosis of COPD, first appeared in 1996.

Aortic valve calcification & stenosis (narrowing), of the valve.** This affects the blood flow throughout the body. Diagnosed 2010 Persistent cramp in hands and feet suggests it might well be getting worse. There is a fix – valve replacement – but given my respiratory problems I probably wouldn’t be considered for surgery, or survive it if I was.

Heart failure** Cause could be either the aortic valve problem, COPD, or both. No-one seems sure, and diagnostic procedures to find out are too dangerous.

Angina, present sporadically since mid eighties. Getting worse.

Bilateral Lymphoedema, present since 2005. Last year severity was off the scale, massively infected and terrifyingly painful.**

Plus several minor (by comparison), but painful and disruptive conditions.

Pretty much any advert or person telling me something is “affordable” has me leaving the vicinity quickly, lest the telly or the person ends up with vital parts severely damaged.

It isn’t helped by my GP telling me that the therapy I need would be available yesterday if only I had private healthcare insurance. I enjoy reminding her about pre-existing conditions.

Whilst we are at it, it’s just as well I don’t have the money to go further than my garden gate as getting travel insurance when you have had or have cancer is impossibly expensive and often impossible to get anyway.

Dear God! Why can’t they just put a sock in it about private healthcare. The disabled, long-term sick, unemployed, pensioners, low paid, middle paid, cannot afford any kind of insurance. That takes out more than half the population so they are only going to get it through the rich.
I’m struggling paying the contents insurance that I pay each month, but it’s best to have it while I can in case anything goes wrong!
John is on ESA, it’s earnings related and he pays income tax, he still gets his insurance stamp paid as well.
There is a lot to be said about Scotland breaking away from the rUK as it’s NHS is protected – if we lose the vote we will be punished severely for trying to leave, our NHS will be sold off quicker than you can blink!

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